Chapter 18 - Smile

The next day, after getting to class, Ryousuke saw Ame and Juutaro who were already inside. They seemed to be playing a game together, as usual. He walked in and greeted them both, "good morning"

"oh! Toru-kun, good morning"

"Morning"

"Playing a regular game?" he asked his two friends, who were focused on playing. "Yes, you have to come after this round is over", Ame replied.

"okay okay"

The rest of the time before class started was spent with the three of them playing games together. After the bell finally rang, the homeroom teacher, Takashi sensei immediately entered the classroom. "good morning everyone"

""""" good morning, senesi"""""

With his tall and domineering body, he firmly continued his words, "I have some bad news for you today. Yesterday, I heard that some students in this class was caught smoking behind the school building. Anyone want to confess? We teachers have enough evidence of your actions, so you better confess now. And your punishment will be lightened by sensei" with his sharp eyes, he looked around the classroom to get a confession from the culprits.

The perpetrators seemed to be frightened by the threats and aura given by their homeroom teacher, so they all raised their hands and confessed immediately. They were a group of three boys, namely Satou, Tanuki, and Oni. After taking the three of them to the teacher's office, the class was left empty to wait for the next class and a commotion immediately ensued. Most of them were girls gossiping about the behavior of the three of them.

Ryousuke could only shake his head at the behavior of the three of them. Of all times, why did they have to do it during school time, and on school grounds as well. Did they have no brains? This was not his old boys-only school that had loose rules.

It was not that he did not understand what they were doing. After all, he had seen such behavior everywhere in his middle school. Especially in the restroom, which was the place most shunned by people with normal minds.

Juutaro thoughtfully lectured him and Ame not to imitate their illegal behavior. He, who was a disciplined person and had a super healthy lifestyle, really hated people with such behavior. Ryousuke and Ame just nodded resignedly listening to his long ramblings that almost resembled their mother.

*ding dong deng deng!

The first period started. They all immediately walked out of the classroom, leaving the classroom instantly empty. The boys and girls walked to their respective changing rooms while carrying bags containing their gym clothes.

Today's first lesson is sports, and the most excited about this were Juutaro and a few others of his type. Entering the men's locker room, the male students immediately took off their uniforms and replaced them with sportswear. Obviously, there was a hidden competition going on inside. They were all secretly comparing whose body looked the best, and Juutaro came out as the winner. After all, he was practically a muscular boy.

Exiting the locker room, they quickly walked towards the sports field outside. In this school, there are various kinds of sports fields. Starting from basketball, Football, tennis, volleyball, badminton, and so on. And they are divided into two parts, namely indoor and outdoor. This time, they headed to the outdoor Football field.

As expected, there was not a single female student to be seen on the field. As common sense would have it, the speed at which women dressed up took five to ten times longer than men.

On the field, the sensei who seemed to be teaching them, was a middle-aged man with a stern and ugly face (by Ryousuke's standards of vision). He stood tall on the sidelines with his arms crossed, and they quickly approached him.

"""" good morning, sensei""""

"Good morning. Where are the other students?"

"oh, the girls? As usual sensei, they are doing their business"

"Humu, it's okay. You guys wait here with me. We'll start class once everyone arrives."

""""haiii""""

The male students scattered and looked for a good spot for each of them. And, among them, some were gossiping about the handsome gym teacher in front of them and how much they envied him. They thought that surely when the girls came, they would squeal with delight that there was finally a handsome teacher in this school.

After a while, the female students finally arrived. As expected, they gossiped in small voices about the cool teacher in front of them. It turned out that his name was Hiroki sensei. He was married and had two children. And during his self-introduction session, it was clear that he was a father who loved his children very much because most of what he told during the introduction session was about the cuteness of his children.

That morning, they were told to run around the field for five laps. Along with warming up and so on, after that they had a soccer lesson, in which only the boys participated and the girls just watched from the side while cheering on their classmates.

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Lunch break, Ryousuke and his two friends were eating their respective lunches when on the other hand...

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A female student, with her pink hair braided, was currently walking towards the cafeteria along with her only female friend in the class. Her name was Midori Kawajima, as you already know.

As usual, she cooked the food for lunch every day by herself. If she had a hobby other than reading and writing, then it was cooking. Holding her lunchbox with both hands, she walked through the stairs leading to the first floor and soon reached the cafeteria.

"Midori-chan, which do you think is better, Kaarage or Katsudon?", out of nowhere, the friend beside Midori suddenly asked her.

"Umm... I think Katsudon..." she answered.

"Is that so?! Then today's lunch menu is Katsudon!", Midori's only friend, none other than Sayaka Mayu. She was an ugly girl, although Midori was slightly worse in terms of appearance. With a height of 160 cm, dark green hair that flowed long until it reached her waist, and large eyes. If this was the old world Ryousuke used to live in, she would be called a graceful and cute type of beauty.

According to Midori's observations during these few days of being friends with her, she knew some of the traits that her friend possessed. She was a glutton when it came to anything that smelled of food, but somehow never turned fat. She was a girl who was not good at studying but somehow always got lucky in every test she took and always got a little above the red line. She was the girl who always talked about whatever things she was thinking about carefree. In short, Sayaka Mayu was a free-spirited girl.

However, behind her behavior, she always helped her if she was in trouble. She somehow always tried to protect her from various things that happened in the classroom. She was like an older sister protecting her younger sister.

She didn't know what would have happened if she hadn't met a friend like Sayaka in this new school. Maybe her school life wouldn't have been this good and events like the past would...

'Stop, don't think about it anymore.' She quickly forgot about the past events that had crossed her mind. The events that made her who she was today...

But even, while recalling the events of her dark past, she did not feel the slightest bit of sadness or anger. Instead, what she felt right now-no, even since last night, was a feeling of excitement and anticipation.

The cause was... The message from the man who had just become her friend.

'How about this weekend, let's exchange books. And maybe, we can also have lunch together outside?'

A message like that.

Her brain still displayed the words that the man had written to her. And a smile inevitably appeared on her ugly face.

'This week, I'm going on a date with him... '

Just thinking about it made Midori's heart race. So fast that she could faint at any moment.